Events

Solar Car Challenge and Conference

The Solar Car Challenge is the top STEM education program designed to help motivate students in Science, Engineering, and Alternative Energy. We teach high school students how to plan, design, engineer, build, race, and evaluate roadworthy solar cars. Students demonstrate that green technology can create a better world. This is project-based learning at its best!

Science & Technology Magazine named the Solar Car Challenge as one of the top science & engineering programs in the country. The Challenge has 107 high school solar car projects in various stages of development in anticipation of an upcoming solar racing event. Teams are located in 30 states and Puerto Rico.

High School teams began preparation for the year-long project during education workshops scheduled in September 2012. Additional workshops, on-site visits, and mentor opportunities help propel the projects to a successful completion. After qualifying, teams get the opportunity to drive their solar cars from the Texas Motor Speedway July 23rd to the California Science Center arriving on July 30th.

Check out the attached flyer for more information. Hope to see you there!

Please join us for our second in a series of seminars...

The Sustainable Living Seminar Series,
Hosted by: The Columban Fathers, the El Paso Solar Energy Association, the El Paso Permaculture Group and the Philosophic Systems Institute

Renewable Energy: Sisters, Chickens, Solar and Soil.
Please join us for a morning of presentations on straw bale housing, raising chickens in a city environment, solar gardens, and the ins and outs of building your own soil. As always, we meet with the idea that the spirit of sustainable living can change the way we think about the world that we live in.

These interactive sessions are designed to guide our understanding of things renewable. In that spirit, come prepared with those questions you always wanted to ask and we'll do our best to answer them.

El Paso. TX October 6th, 2012 – EPSEA joins the nonprofit American Solar Energy Society (ASES) and hundreds of solar-savvy installers and grassroots organizations throughout America to showcase more than 5,000 solar-powered homes, schools and businesses ― in El Paso and across North America -- for the 17th Annual National Solar Tour, the world’s largest grassroots solar event.

The event, slated for October 6th, showcases the solar technologies your neighbors are using to 1) reduce monthly energy bills, 2) reduce harmful carbon emissions, and 3) take advantage of the opportunity to invest in their futures.

“El Paso is a solar gold mine and has the best solar resource in the US. We are uniquely positioned, literally, to embrace the future of renewable energy here in the region.” stated Harry Schulte, Executive Director of EPSEA. “The ASES National Solar Tour shows families and businesses real-life examples of how their neighbors are harnessing free energy from the sun” he said. It is a collaboration of unprecedented proportion to help Americans address the growing need for electricity and demonstrates an array of clean, effective, practical and economical solutions available right here, right now.

On October 6th, EPSEA will hold tours of homes and businesses in the El Paso area. Maps are available at www.ep-sea.org.

The self-guided tours last year attracted more than 150,000 people in 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Tours afford participants the direct perspectives of homeowners and installers about the costs, processes and economic and environmental benefits of going solar. The tours also give EL Pasoans a glimpse at how a variety of solar systems look in and around structures with different architectural styles.

This Tour is free and open to the public. The public will have the opportunity to sign up for membership in EPSEA at each of the locations. If you’d like to join EPSEA now and/or participate in the solar tour at our booths please send email to info@ep-sea.org

Solar Benefits Forum!

El Paso Solar Energy Association, Franklin College, and Solar Community Commission a Residential Solar System and Welcome the Public to a
Solar Benefits Forum!

Tuesday, October 2, 2012, El Paso, Texas: Students of Franklin College’s solar training program, Construction Technology with a Specialty in Solar, are working with the El Paso Solar Energy Association (EPSEA) to install solar systems in the El Paso area. Solar Community, an Austin, Texas based company, has partnered with EPSEA and Franklin College to contribute to El Paso’s solar workforce development effort. The most recent installation, which has already passed inspection by the City of El Paso will be featured at 12308 Peggy Rosson Way in El Paso, Texas.

Students from Franklin College, to date, have worked on various residential solar projects in the El Paso area. This recent effort marks the largest system install partnership with Solar Community of Austin.
Shelby Ruff, Solar Community’s Vice President of National Sales agrees with Schulte’s outlook on solar in El Paso. “El Paso is on track to become one of the solar giants in the southwest and it excites us to partner with schools like Franklin College to improve our solar workforce and help put El Pasoans to work.”